Sunday, September 18, 2016

What the right wing hears

by digby

Rush Limbaugh on health and fitness:

On Sunday, Hillary Clinton seizes up, she just started bopping up and down, she started wavering back and forth. She literally seized up trying to get into a double wide door van. After having had to leave the 9/11 ceremony early because of supposed overheating and dehydration. She had to be literally thrown into the van, and two people had to move in quickly to keep her from collapsing to the ground. She started convulsing.

What's the big story today in the drive-by media? The big story today is the health of Donald Trump and his appearance on The Dr. Oz Show. Has Trump collapsed? Has Trump had to suspend campaigning? Has Trump disappeared for days at a time? Have doctors diagnosed Trump with any diseases whatsoever that would explain erratic physical behavior? Does he have to have people hold on to him and help him get up flights of stairs? Does he need a Secret Service agent or doctor rubbing his back telling her ‘just keep talking, everything’s fine. We’re going to get through it?’ Does he need that like she does? Does he have a health care worker on standby taking his pulse simply walking down the sidewalk? Is Donald Trump chronically dehydrated? Have we heard stories about how Donald Trump hates water, doesn’t like to drink water, has to have water forced in him? She’s the smartest woman in the world and doesn’t drink water, doesn’t like it.

Yet the drive-bys are so concerned Trump’s 15 pounds overweight, and he gets criticized for eating junk food. I think a lot of 70-year-old guys would love to have Trump’s weight to size ratio, they would love to have the amount of hair he’s got, they might do something different with it. But I know a lot of 70-year-old people who would love to have Trump’s energy and stamina. He sleeps four or five hours a night max. He's one of these people, by the way, who loves getting up. I don't know how many of you do. He loves it. He loves waking up. He loves getting up. This is the news about him, this is the stories, anyway.

Speaking of overweight, have these drive-by media people actually taken a moment to look at the size of the pants Hillary wears in her pantsuits? I know it's sexist to talk about things like women being overweight and all that, but come on. This is just one of any number of examples I could give you to explain why the news media’s trust and believability is at an all-time low.

And this is why the media believes their coverage is perfectly fair. It's not like they're saying this, right? They're being much more circumspect. What's the problem?